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Saturday, April 16, 2016

Hillary Clinton's Vermont Gun Lie NOT Explained

Will all know "why" Hillary Clinton put out the statement: "The state that has the highest per capita number of those guns that end up committing crimes in New York come from Vermont."

It was very obvious "why" she did it — it was part of her
negative campaign strategy to use "artful smears and innuendos" against
Bernie Sanders — using dirty tactics that she has blamed Sanders for using.
That was "why" she made the statement, but during the debate we never
had a chance to hear her explain her reason for doing this. It might have been
very entertaining.

Just like during the previous eight Democratic primary debates, we saw
Hillary Clinton perform very well in the ninth debate. As usual, we saw her list all
her bullet points that could take fact-checkers days to research; and as usual,
Clinton presented her well-honed campaign positions that policy wonks might also
want to research to test the viability of her plans.

After all, when Dwight D. Eisenhower ran for president, didn't he first have
to submit a detailed plan for his idea of a national highway system? Or before
FDR was elected, didn't he first have to tell us all the details of his New Deal
or how he proposed to land in France to defeat the Nazis?

Just like Obama did in 2008, Hillary has lots of "plans" and
"ideas" — and she "supports" many different things. And
unlike Bernie Sanders, she "doesn't make promises" that she can't
keep, because she is "progressive who gets things done." So, for the
sake of argument, we'll assume that in November 2016, the Republicans will still
control the House and Senate — and that she can get more legislation passed
than either President Obama or any would-be President Sanders.

And of course, all of Clinton's "pragmatic" ideas would include
taking on the NRA and repealing gun laws that her husband passed — and passing
more laws that will impose greater restrictions on gun ownership — including
the ability to more easily sue big corporations (And we'll also assume that, while she's busy taking on Wall
Street, Big Pharma and Big Oil, there also won't be any more Benghazi or
email hearings coming from our GOP Congress).

But no doubt, Hillary Clinton is a great debater, even though she
claims she's not a "natural politician" like her husband or President
Obama — but she debated Obama pretty well in 2008. So if she's not a good politician,
she's a good debater.

But then again, because she's such as skilled debater, that could also make
her a skilled politician — because, just like a skilled politician, she is great at avoiding a direct question
with a short and concise and direct answer. When she doesn't want to answer a
question, she's very skilled at changing the subject and obfuscating —
getting far off track from the question and sometimes launching into mini-filibusters—
until either, her time has expired, or the original question gets buried and
forgotten. Well played Ms Clinton, well played!

But something different happened in the last debate: two CNN moderators
weren't fooled this time; and after a couple of Clinton's usual non-responses, she
was asked to answer again. At one point Clinton was called out by one of the
moderators for making an outrageous claim against Bernie Sanders' home State
— so all of us dumb folks can more easily connect all the make-believe dots
and blame Senator Sanders for running assaults weapons out of an old barn in the
woods of Vermont.

Previously, Hillary Clinton all but inferred that Bernie Sanders was partially
to blame for all the guns that were being used to kill people in New York. The Washington Post gave her 3 Pinocchios
for this outrageous lie. On the afternoon of April 4th Clinton
delivered a speech to a closed audience of Democratic lawmakers, lobbyists and other party stalwarts in the ballroom of a hotel just down the block from the
State Capitol in Albany New York:

"Here’s what I want you to know. Most of the guns that are used in crimes and violence and killings in New York come from out of state. And the state that has the highest per capita number of those guns that end up committing crimes in New York come from Vermont."

Two days later on April 6th the New York Daily News ran a slanderous cover (below,
left) — and later that same day in
an interview with MSNBC Bernie Sanders expressed his views about Sandy Hook.
Then six days later on April 12th the New York Daily News endorsed Hillary Clinton
(below, right). Then two days after that we had the 9th Democratic primary debate
in New York.

At the New York debate the CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer had asked:

BLITZER: "Secretary Clinton, you've said that Vermont, Senator Sanders'
home state, has, quote, "the highest per capita number of guns that end up committing crimes in New York." But only
1.2 percent of the guns recovered in New York in 2014 were from Vermont. Are you seriously blaming Vermont, and implicitly Senator Sanders, for New York's gun violence?"

CLINTON: "No, of course not. Of course not. This is a — this is a serious difference between
us. And what I want to start by saying..." (The audience laughs, and Sanders shakes his head and smiles, because everyone knows
Clinton is full of cattle excrement. Then she took a serious and hard tone, with an angry
facial expression) "It's not a laughing matter! 90 people on average a day are killed or commit suicide or die in accidents from
guns — 33,000 people a year! I take it really seriously, because I have spent more time than I care to remember being with people who have lost their loved
ones!"

Watch the entire segment of the debate about guns with this exchange in the
10-minute video below...

Hillary Clinton had been using the parents of a child who was killed at Sandy Hook
as a sympathy prop on the
campaign trail, and whose still-grieving parents had unreasonably demanded an apology from Bernie Sanders for voting on a gun bill
— a gun bill that Hillary Clinton's own husband (as President) had signed into law at the
time (Brady
Bill).

When it was Bernie Sanders' turn to respond to Clinton's gun diatribe, he said the only problem was,
she didn't answer Wolf Blitzer's question — and why did she but out that
statement: "The state that has the highest per capita number of those guns that end up committing crimes in New York come from Vermont."

Unfortunately for Sanders, Clinton had started to respond, but he had cut her off
because she began to interrupt him. She often interrupts during the debates with
Sanders, she as she did with Obama in 2008. So Bernie was only holding his
ground. But on this ONE OCCASIONAL, he may have wanted to hear a specific explanation
from her as to why she released that absurd statement: "The state that has the highest per capita number of those guns that end up committing crimes in New York come from Vermont."

After the debate, CNN had fact-checked and found that of the 4,585 guns used in crimes that were traced back to States, 55 came from
Vermont. (Clinton should gets 1,000, not 3 Pinocchios from the Washington Post).

So that was the "big lie" that was never explained. But even if Bernie
had let her speak that one time, she still may not have given a clear answer —
and just like always, obfuscated
some more. So I guess we'll never now, unless we hear something at a 10th debate.
(But if I were in Sanders's campaign, I would still be asking for an apology,
even knowing I wouldn't get one, because I'd have their refusal to apologize on the record.)

Also during that debate (it's all in the video above), CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer had asked Bernie Sanders if he owed an apology to those
parents of the victims at Sandy Hook — but he never asked Hillary Clinton for an apology for all those who were killed and maimed in the Iraq
war. A 2011 study found 500,000 Iraqis died in that war, and over 4,900
Americans — and hundreds of thousands more were wounded.

But instead of ever apologizing to the families and loved ones for her vote for that war,
Clinton first laid
the blame on George W. Bush in a 2008 debate with
Obama, saying she had been fooled. Then years later in an interview, when asked, Hillary
Clinton said her vote for the Iraq war was "a mistake, plain and simple" — and said we could
read all about it in her book "Hard Choices".

Whenever a Sanders surrogate is criticized for ever misspeaking (like when one speaker at a Sanders rally used the term
"democratic corporate whore"), not only does Clinton's campaign expect an apology
from Sanders' campaign, but one that is done in a very timely manner. But we have yet
to hear Hillary Clinton say "I'm sorry" for anything she has done that has caused misery,
suffering and death for millions of other people. In this way, she and Donald Trump have something in common. She'll
only say she made a mistake, but not apologize for the mistake. But Trump never admits
to mistakes, but he also never makes apologies either.

So never expect Hillary Clinton to ever apologize to Bernie Sanders or his
supporters for all the other crappy bullshit she pulled during her campaign. But
I'll will bet you one $225,000 speech that she'll be begging for Bernie's votes if she
ever gets the Democratic nomination. She already brags
about the number of votes she has, but my vote is one she can never own.

*FYI: The debate was held at the Brooklyn Navy Yard's Duggal Greenhouse, which can host as many as 3,000 people at full capacity. But CNN limited
the tickets to 1,100 — with 800 of the seats going to the campaigns of Sanders and Clinton — and with CNN, NY1 and New York Daily News (pro-Hillary camps) getting a number of tickets as well. No tickets had been released to the general public.

Should Hillary Clinton be indicted by Donald Trump's new AG?

Blogster-at-Large

Bud Meyers writes about the economy, politics, Social Security, corporate outsourcing, labor statistics, the REAL unemployment rate, taxes and tax evasion, government and corporate corruption, and the plight of the long-term unemployed.